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Carl Icahn graduated with a BPh from Princeton in 1957. He continued his studies in medicine but dropped out and instead joined the army. Shortly after his discharge from service, Icahn began his professional career in 1961 as a broker at Dreyfus & Co. In 1963 he left Dreyfus and became a stock options trader at Patrick and Company. He continued with options trading after moving to Gruntal & Co. a year later.

In 1968, Carl took a $400,000 loan from his uncle to purchase a seat on the New York Stock Exchange; for his own brokerage firm, Icahn & Co. The firm centered on risk arbitrage; buying stock with the anticipation of a takeover bid that ultimately raises the stock price.

Remarkable Investments

The next step in his career soon followed and in 1978 he began to take controlling positions in different private companies, including Western Union, Revlon, Texaco, USX, Netflix, Blockbuster, and many others. From then on Icahn became well known for his assertive approach.

In 1985, having experienced the most successful point in his career thus far, Icahn took a major position in Trans-World Airlines (TWA), with the intention of buying it out of its debt in exchange for the bulk of its shares. Later, Icahn became its CEO and was now expected to save it from bankruptcy. Despite the challenge, in 1991 the company emerged from bankruptcy, after which Icahn resigned.

In 2004, he started his own hedge fund, Icahn Partners. During the years that followed the shrewd businessman took head positions in Netflix, Time Warner, eBay, Apple, Family Dollar, and Clorox.

Philanthropy, Interests and Personal Life

Icahn’s interests do not stop with the world of finance, Carl has a keen interest in horse racing, and in 1985 he established a horse breeding enterprise called Foxfield, which he sold in 2004.

Carl Icahn also has a great deal of corporate responsibility; using his 200 shares Icahn has been involved in a decades long effort to stop McDonald’s from sourcing pork from suppliers using gestation crates, which limit the movements of pregnant sows.

Icahn has made considerable contributions to numerous social causes over the years — from education, through science, to health organizations. Notable examples are the Icahn houses, which provide shelter for the homeless people of New York, the Icahn Scholar Program which provides full funding for students, and his substantial $200 million donation for what now is the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Latest News

In May of 2023 New York based Hindenburg research firm released a report targeting Icahn, claiming Icahn’s firm runs a ponzi like economic structure, which is substantially overvalued. Hindenburg accused the firm of using money from newer investors to pay out the dividends to old investors. These allegations caused IEP shares to drop 51%. As Icahn derived most of his wealth from an 89% stake in Icahn enterprises, he is said to have lost $10 billion USD in 24 hours. Although IEP suffered a drastic loss their first quarterly report of 2024 shows steps for improvement.